Tuning the Surface Chemistry of Metal Organic Framework Nodes: Proton Topology of the Metal-Oxide-Like Zr

Some metal organic frameworks (MOFs) incorporate nodes that are nanoscale metal oxides, and the hydroxy-containing functional groups on them provide opportunities for introducing catalytic sites with precisely defined structures. Investigations have been done to understand the structures of these groups on nodes and node vacancies, because, in prospect, atomic-scale modulation of the composition, areal density, and/or siting of the groups would open up possibilities for exquisite tuning of the siting and performance of subsequently anchored catalytic units (e.g., single metal ions, pairs of metal ions, or well-defined metal-ion-containing clusters). We have combined infrared (IR) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) to demonstrate tuning of these sites, namely, hydrogen-bonded OH/OH